It seems like a decade ago that Brett Rogers took his 10-0 record into a fight with Fedor Emelianenko. In reality, only two-and-a-half years have passed.Rogers’ MMA career took a nosedive after his loss to Emelianenko. Over his last five fights, Rogers…
It seems like a decade ago that Brett Rogers took his 10-0 record into a fight with Fedor Emelianenko. In reality, only two-and-a-half years have passed.
Rogers’ MMA career took a nosedive after his loss to Emelianenko. Over his last five fights, Rogers has a record of 1-4, with his only win coming against Ruben Villareal, who owns a career record of 20-24.
Now it appears Rogers is going to try and put his career back on the map. MMAFighting.com is reporting that Rogers has signed with Bellator. His first fight will take place on June 22 at Bellator 71.
“Over the past year I have been challenged in my personal life, but all is now good in the Rogers family. Everyone makes mistakes in life but it’s how you recover that really counts. I spend every day with my wife and kids and enjoy every minute of it. Fighting is my job and I love it, but I also love my family and that’s why I made things right before returning to the cage. All I can say is get ready for a new and improved Brett Rogers.”
One has to be encouraged whenever somebody claims to have worked out personal issues, but it doesn’t mean Rogers’ recent poor performance in the cage was entirely due to distractions.
Was the 10-0 start to Rogers’ career legitimate, or was it simply a case of him being matched up against inferior opponents? If he is going to add credibility to his career, it’s going to start at Bellator 71.
Joe Chacon is a Featured Columnist for Bleacher Report and a Staff Writer for Operation Sports. You can follow him on Twitter @JoeChacon.
(Man, 2009, right? Crazy times. / Image via City Pages)
Bellator sent out a press release this morning announcing that they’ve signed struggling slugger Brett Rogers, who will make his promotional debut at Bellator 71, June 22nd in Chester, West Virginia. “I am incredibly thankful to Bjorn Rebney and Bellator for giving me and my family this opportunity,” Rogers said. “I feel that I am still one of the top heavyweights in the sport and now I have the opportunity to prove it with Bellator. I love the tournament format as it will give me the chance to regain my top position, of course with a lot hard work.”
Rogers’s opponent for the June 22nd card hasn’t been announced yet, but his tournament ambitions will have until this fall; Bellator 71 is slated to host the quarterfinals of their 2012 Summer Series Light-Heavyweight tournament, featuring Travis Wiuff, Zelg Galesic, and Richard Hale.
After starting his career with ten consecutive wins — all by strikes within the first two rounds — Rogers hit a dramatic rough patch in which he lost three straight fights under the Strikeforce banner, got arrested and convicted for beating up his wife, then dropped a split-decision to Eddie Sanchez at Titan FC 20. Most recently, Rogers fought a 2-1 gym-owner named Todd Allee to a no-contest at Donofrio Entertainment’s “My Bloody Valentine” show; in his attempt to finish Allee on the ground, Rogers landed an illegal blow to the back his opponent’s head that Allee wasn’t able to recover from.
As Rogers explains in the press release:
(Man, 2009, right? Crazy times. / Image via City Pages)
Bellator sent out a press release this morning announcing that they’ve signed struggling slugger Brett Rogers, who will make his promotional debut at Bellator 71, June 22nd in Chester, West Virginia. “I am incredibly thankful to Bjorn Rebney and Bellator for giving me and my family this opportunity,” Rogers said. “I feel that I am still one of the top heavyweights in the sport and now I have the opportunity to prove it with Bellator. I love the tournament format as it will give me the chance to regain my top position, of course with a lot hard work.”
Rogers’s opponent for the June 22nd card hasn’t been announced yet, but his tournament ambitions will have until this fall; Bellator 71 is slated to host the quarterfinals of their 2012 Summer Series Light-Heavyweight tournament, featuring Travis Wiuff, Zelg Galesic, and Richard Hale.
After starting his career with ten consecutive wins — all by strikes within the first two rounds — Rogers hit a dramatic rough patch in which he lost three straight fights under the Strikeforce banner, got arrested and convicted for beating up his wife, then dropped a split-decision to Eddie Sanchez at Titan FC 20. Most recently, Rogers fought a 2-1 gym-owner named Todd Allee to a no-contest at Donofrio Entertainment’s “My Bloody Valentine” show; in his attempt to finish Allee on the ground, Rogers landed an illegal blow to the back his opponent’s head that Allee wasn’t able to recover from.
As Rogers explains in the press release:
“Over the past year I have been challenged in my personal life, but all is now good in the Rogers family. Everyone makes mistakes in life but it’s how you recover that really counts. I spend every day with my wife and kids and enjoy every minute of it. Fighting is my job and I love it, but I also love my family and that’s why I made things right before returning to the cage. All I can say is get ready for a new and improved Brett Rogers.”
Added Bellator CEO Bjorn Rebney:
“I was in Chicago the night Brett Rogers came within just a few punches of dethroning The Last Emperor on a worldwide stage and I watched early in his career when he was a KO machine. Brett’s management’s been talking to us for months about Brett. And, after talking to Brett at length, I think this could be the type of fresh start he needs to put his fighting career and other parts of his life back to where he hoped they would be.”
Rogers’s entry into Bellator could also add some much-needed name value to a thin heavyweight roster that hasn’t exactly captured the imaginations of MMA fans and is becoming a dumping ground for disgraced former Zuffa prospects. Can Da Grim recapture some of his old magic on a smaller stage, now that his personal troubles are behind him? Or will he get smacked down as soon as he rises to the top of the Bellator food chain?
For chaos-loving MMA fans, getting one over on Wikipedia is a mark of honor. This UG thread reminded us of the hilarious tradition of Wikipedia-page vandalism, so we decided to scour the Internet for some of our favorite MMA-related examples; thanks to all the anonymous men and women who quickly screen-capped these gems before they were fixed. Check out our full gallery of MMA wiki edits after the jump, and if we’ve left out any good ones, shoot us some links in the comments section.
For chaos-loving MMA fans, getting one over on Wikipedia is a mark of honor. This UG thread reminded us of the hilarious tradition of Wikipedia-page vandalism, so we decided to scour the Internet for some of our favorite MMA-related examples; thanks to all the anonymous men and women who quickly screen-capped these gems before they were fixed. Check out our full gallery of MMA wiki edits above, and if we’ve left out any good ones, shoot us some links in the comments section.
(Sometimes these things happen in a backyard flashlight UFC fights.)
We were reluctant to show this video of two drunken idiot brothers reenacting a Chuck Liddell highlight reel, given the heat the WWE has gotten over the years from injuries sustained by children jumping off of ladders and hitting each other with chairs, and figured why show the dark side of MMA fans?
Then we thought, these assholes aren’t kids — they’re mentally challenged grown-ass men and what better PSA is there then to show the general public how fans shouldn’t participate in the sport. Commissions conduct pre-fight medicals for a reason and aspiring fighters wear headgear, handwraps and 12 to 14-ounce gloves when they spar, not jeans and four-ounce fight gloves to compete in a headlight-lit backyard. And besides maybe Junie Browning, War Machine, Drew Fickett, and Brett Rogers, legit fighters never spar or fight when they’ve been drinking.
Check out the video after the jump. Unfortunately only one of these idiots was knocked out.
(Sometimes these things happen in a backyard flashlight UFC fights.)
We were reluctant to show this video of two drunken idiot brothers reenacting a Chuck Liddell highlight reel, given the heat the WWE has gotten over the years from injuries sustained by children jumping off of ladders and hitting each other with chairs, and figured why show the dark side of MMA fans?
Then we thought, these assholes aren’t kids — they’re mentally challenged grown-ass men and what better PSA is there then to show the general public how fans shouldn’t participate in the sport. Commissions conduct pre-fight medicals for a reason and aspiring fighters wear headgear, handwraps and 12 to 14-ounce gloves when they spar, not jeans and four-ounce fight gloves to compete in a headlight-lit backyard. And besides maybe Junie Browning, War Machine, Drew Fickett, and Brett Rogers, legit fighters never spar or fight when they’ve been drinking.
Now that we have the PSA portion of the post out of the way, check out the video of two brothers with zero training pounding the shit out of each other with haymakers and overhand rights. I guess a double-knockout was too much to ask for.
It looks like Brett Rogers is content with his career being that of a can crusher.
The former EliteXC and Strikeforce heavyweight’s next opponent is 38-year-old Todd Allee, who is 2-1 (1 NC) with only four fights under his belt, including two wins against a pair of fighters with a combined 0-3 record.
Now instead he’ll face Allee, a Michigan MMA instructor who hasn’t fought in a year.
(“Awwww…How adorable are you?”)
It looks like Brett Rogers is content with his career being that of a can crusher.
The former EliteXC and Strikeforce heavyweight’s next opponent is 38-year-old Todd Allee, who is 2-1 (1 NC) with only four fights under his belt, including two wins against a pair of fighters with a combined 0-3 record.
Now instead he’ll face Allee, a Michigan-based gym owner and purple belt who hasn’t fought in a year.
Not surprisingly, Alee, like us, isn’t giving himself much of a chance of beating Rogers.
“I’m expected to lose, so if I put in a good performance, I did well for myself,” he explains. “I don’t feel worried.”
He is holding onto a thread of hope that he could somehow pull off a miracle win over his veteran opponent.
“I think it’s a good opportunity to fight a guy like him in my hometown. At this point, I would rather fight a big-name guy like this than some kid from nowhere who is an All-American wrestler and undefeated. Even if I beat [the wrestler], it does nothing for my career,” he says. “If I beat Brett Rogers, I’m a superhero!”
The question is, what kind of a commission sanctions a mismatch like this? Where I live, they’ve turned down evenly-matched fights between veterans because one of the fighters who has fought UFC vets and a WEC champion, hadn’t competed in MMA for three years. Rogers is 11-4. He’s faced Overeem, Barnett and Fedor and he beat Andrei Arlovski. There’s no way he should be matched up with a guy with as little experience as Allee.
Most ‘crimes’ in MMA take the form of inept judging and flagrant rule breaking, but this past year many professional fighters were caught up in activities that landed them inside of a very different sort of cage. Get ready for a trip down memory lane in our most depressing “booking roundup” of the year. Here’s your run down of 2011’s biggest arrests, convictions, acquittals, and sentencings.
Most ‘crimes’ in MMA take the form of inept judging and flagrant rule breaking, but this past year many professional fighters were caught up in activities that landed them inside of a very different sort of cage. Get ready for a trip down memory lane in our most depressing “booking roundup” of the year. Here’s your run down of 2011’s biggest arrests, convictions, acquittals, and sentencings.
Random Assaults
Ben Fodor (aka“Phoenix Jones”)
Elements of the Crime: You almost get the feeling that some of the fighters on this list go looking for trouble. In the case of Ben Fodor, that’s entirely accurate. The brother of Strikeforce fighter Caros Fodor, Ben has only had one professional fight, preferring instead to wage his battles on the mean streets of Seattle under the moniker “Phoenix Jones”. The would-be super hero tried to break up a street fight earlier this year by dosing the parties with pepper spray. In addition to enraging the “bad guys”, Fodor’s actions caught the attention of local authorities. It turns out that when you pepper spray a crowd you’re committing a crime, unless you have a written note from Commissioner Gordon.
The Charges: Assault
The Sentence: Though Fodor was summoned to court, no charges were filed.
Career Fallout: Well, a fighting career isn’t really his focus. His crime-fighting career, however, may have taken a hit. Jones’s ‘super-secret’ identity was revealed as a function of the court process. Now anyone he’s ever loved is at risk.
Ricco Rodriguez
Elements of the Crime: When Ricco Rodriguez wants to party, Ricco Rodriguez wants to party. It’s caused him plenty of trouble in his life, from becoming the first UFC fighter suspended for coke abuse to a little incident where he dragged his not-quite-yet-dead girlfriend’s body behind the wheel of his wrecked car. After an appearance on “Celebrity Rehab”, things were looking up for the former champ, but then he short changed a cab driver after being dropped off a bar and slammed the cabbie to the ground when he called the authorities. Unfortunately “Suave” hadn’t calmed down by the time the cops arrived; as they tried to place him under arrest, he shoved one of them into the wall.
Elements of the Crime: Compared to most of the drunken women that fell prey to MMA fighters this year, Hong Man Choi’s victim got off pretty easy. The 20 year old refused to pay what she considered to be an inflated tab after having drinks at the K1 & MMA fighter’s pub in Gwangjin, Korea. Choi was said to have punched the woman after she cursed at him during their brief argument. The 7’2” giant admitted to pushing the woman aside after she had struck him, but no more.
Career Fallout: If fighting Jose Canseco doesn’t kill your career, nothing can, bruh.
Junie Browning
Elements of the Crime: Attention whore Junie Browning came correct with a dramatic, last minute entry to our rap-sheet wrap-up. The aptly-named “Lunatik” took a break from training in Phuket, Thailand to have a few drinks with friends at a local watering hole. Trouble must have a passport, because it promptly tracked Junie down and a massive bar, street, and hospital brawl ensued. What exactly prompted the melee and who was the aggressor is a matter of whose story you believe. It’s your classic case of “drunken-insane-MMA-washout-said/drunken-bar-owner-potential-plane-bomber-said. What we do know is that Browning went into hiding, either from authorities or the Thai mafia. More details poured in, but they hardly shed light on the matter.
The Charges: Multiple assault charges
The Sentence: In the midst of a massive manhunt, Junie turned himself in to authorities, who opted to work with both parties to find a resolution to the squab rather than press criminal charges. Thus far those efforts have proven fruitless.
Career Fallout: Junie only fought once in 2011, picking up his fourth straight loss on a regional card in Albuquerque, New Mexico. While this recent legal dust-up won’t endear him to any big league promoters, neither will his fighting.
It seems like a decade ago that Brett Rogers took his 10-0 record into a fight with Fedor Emelianenko. In reality, only two-and-a-half years have passed.
